This month, 2,800 athletes will move into Vancouver’s Olympic Village, a $1 billion LEED Gold facility which also features more than 3.5-acres of green roofs, writes The Vancouver Sun. The roofs of more than half of the village’s 22 buildings are covered in sedum, a plant species commonly used on green roofs because of their ability to absorb heat and CO2.
Peter Kreuk, International ASLA, principal at Durante-Kruek and lead landscape architect on the project, told The Vancouver Sun the sedums used for the green roofs were grown in long mats and then rolled-out like turf over 7.5 cm (3 inches) of roof soil. Kreuk said: “Sedums are super drought tolerant plants. You could grow them on a rock, they are that tough. They should do very well in this location.” The roofs will also features designs: “In the middle of the roofs, the outline of Olympic athletes in motion doing their sport (skiing, curling, hockey, luge and skating) have been etched out of contrasting red sedums.”
The village’s designers made the roofs activity areas and integral to the overal design. Other roofs will contain garden spaces with “raised concrete beds” that will be used for growing herbs and vegetables. “Some of these areas also have tool sheds, potting tables, cold frames and stylish metal bins for composting.” Additionally, there are numerous green social spaces including patios, decks, and courtyard gardens.
Kreuk described the outdoor spaces: “We tried to design these areas as if they were someone’s private backyard. And what do you do in your backyard? Well, you have a place to sit and have dinner. You have a space growing things. And you need a place for children to play. We tried to make sure all the garden areas could be used in this way. We didn’t want them to have just one single function. I think they are all nicely scaled spaces.”
There was a focus on using water-efficient systems in an integrated site design. Rainwater will be captured and stored in underground cisterns. The rainwater will then be used to flush toilets, and, in summer, will be pumped up to irrigate the green roofs, “not that they will need much irrigating since all the plant material was specifically chosen to be drought tolerant and require minimal maintenance.” Other rainfall will be channeled through storm drains out to a meandering stream and will be “emptied after being filtered through detoxifying aquatic plants into False Creek.”
Image credit: The Vancouver Sun
